Starfish hitchhiker good or bad

[kyreefville]

Found this from doing water change before I throw him back figured I should make sure it wasn’t some horrible critter. I’m assuming some kind of serpent starfish. Of course I spent five minutes going. Is that a Zoe spider

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Looks like a brittle star to me. Not a bad guy.

 

[kyreefville]

 

[nsteinca]

Micro Brittle Starfish - Sustainably Aquacultured

Size: 1/2 inch to 1 inch Sustainably aquacultured in TSA Farm Systems Highly effective cleanup crew for removing detritus, uneaten feed and scrubbing the inner spaces of live rock. Absolutely reef safe for fish, corals and other invertebrate cleanup crew. Will breed in most home aquariums 10...

topshelfaquatics.com

Great little guys to have in your tank!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Definitely a brittle star! Just not sure if a full size, or a micro. Micro are great I have so many I lost count. Full size can be cool too, but they can be predatory as well. Maybe @ISpeakForTheSeas can say for sure which it is

 

[kyreefville]

Back in the tank thanks

 

[dakoop]

Keeper

 

[NonstopSoda]

Brittle star! good hitchhiker.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Definitely a brittle star! Just not sure if a full size, or a micro. Micro are great I have so many I lost count. Full size can be cool too, but they can be predatory as well. Maybe @ISpeakForTheSeas can say for sure which it is

I've got a lot of learning to do with brittle stars (I need to go through and figure out some of the higher taxonomic diagnostic characteristics for them, but the few I've looked at ID'ing in depth require some pretty intensive photography to ID).

Anyway, most brittle stars in the hobby are totally fine/keepers - the only exception I can recall seeing so far is the Green Serpent Star, Ophiarachna incrassata, which is known to eat sleeping fish.

 

[kyreefville]

Ok didn’t see any green he was so small hard to get a good photo

 

[kyreefville]

Thanks again everyone

 

[nsteinca]

You should be good. Unless you put live rock in, it’s vastly more likely to be a micro brittle star that came in on a frag plug

 

[vetteguy53081]

Found this from doing water change before I throw him back figured I should make sure it wasn’t some horrible critter. I’m assuming some kind of serpent starfish. Of course I spent five minutes going. Is that a Zoe spider

Keeper and eats detritus and uneaten food